


old friends, new places, old haunts, new faces

by bluesargayent



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/F, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), tlcshipweeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28519350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesargayent/pseuds/bluesargayent
Summary: Scarlet, Goddess of Harvest, must search the world for her kidnapped grandmother. Along the way, she runs into a both an old friend and a new one.
Relationships: Scarlet Benoit/Winter Hayle-Blackburn
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	old friends, new places, old haunts, new faces

**Author's Note:**

> I realized that I must have accidentally deleted this story from my tumblr so I'm reposting here with slight editing where it's probably much easier to find anyways!
> 
> Written for tlcshipweek 2015, Day 5: Mythology (and backdated appropriately)

Scarlet knew her grandmother was kidnapped the moment she decided to visit and discovered she wasn’t at home.

Normally that would have been a big leap to take. After all, Grandma Benoit may have been out with her friends, or simply visiting Earth. But Scarlet had seen the way that hairy minor god had been looking at her yesterday, like she was his next meal. Scar had ignored it, assuming her Grandmother could take care of herself, but still felt compelled to check up on her--for good reason, as she soon found out.

First thing, she alerted the King of the Gods, figuring he must have some idea of what to do in this case. This proved futile since he seemed convinced the goddess had just run away.

“Your grandmother’s always been a free spirit,” He said dismissively. “I may be the King of the Heavens, but even I can’t reel her in.”

No amount of begging or pleading would make him change his mind.

So, she set off in search of her grandmother with no help. First, she decided, she would start by tracking down the minor god she had seen eying her grandmother. She followed the deity to a large field of wheat she vaguely remembered visiting before. That made sense, with her grandmother being the goddess of season. While the older lady was in charge of seasons, Scarlet had inherited the more specific and perhaps even more important role of being goddess of harvest. It was a job she had always loved and took seriously. 

Recently the job had taken a step down in importance during Scarlet’s search, but she figured that the mortals could deal with farming on their own for a couple days. It wouldn’t take long for her to track her grandmother down.

A couple days turned into weeks, which turned into months without her noticing as Scarlet searched high and low for her grandmother. Until one day she was wandering around a sandy desert and-

“Oof!”

“Watch where you’re going!”

“What?” Scarlet stepped back to examine the person she had run into. He didn’t seem to be a god--at least not a major one. Admittedly very handsome, the man was tall and hairy, with slightly pointed teeth and--

“You!” Scarlet summoned a scythe from the air to point at the man. The tip hovered under his chin, perfectly balanced from her years of working on farms.

The man stood stock still, hands raised. “Do I know you?”

“Tell me where you took her!”

“Who?” He asked.

“Tell. Me. Where. You. Took. Her.”

“I’m sorry! I-I ate her.”

Scarlet relaxed her weapon in surprise. “You did what?”

“I didn’t realize she belonged to someone! I was just wandering around, lost, and I saw her. I was starving. Please, understand.” The man held his hands out in a plea for mercy.

“So you ate someone? Surely you would have prayed for help first.”

“I did! I prayed to Scarlet, Goddess of the Harvest, that I may find subsistence in this time of nothing. It thought the goat was an answer to the prayer.”

His words continued to take her by surprise. He had prayed to her. He probably wasn’t the only one either. Humans were so weak. Apparently they couldn't even last on their own for a couple days. Scarlet had ignored the whispering of prayers in her ears during her hunt. Who knew how many people were like this man, wandering around, starving. Being reduced to eating--

“Goat?”

“Yes. That’s what you’re talking about, right?”

Scarlet frowned. “No. I apologize. My grandmother had gone missing and--”

“You thought I ate a grandmother?” The man’s face displayed the same shock that Scarlet’s had when she first jumped to that conclusion.

She bit her cheek to keep herself from chiding him for interrupting her. It wasn’t his fault, of course. He probably had no idea she was a goddess. “It was an honest mistake.” 

He looked wary, but accepted her answer. “Your grandmother. She is a strong old woman?”

“Yes,” She replied cautiously. 

“With a shiny cloak, the kind that changed colors.”

“You know her.” Gripping the scythe tighter, Scarlet braced herself for another fight.

“I saw her. Back in my village they had captured her and wanted to question her. Someone saw her make the cherry trees blossom in the middle of fall so they formed a party to question her.”

That wasn’t right. Her grandmother was powerful. No mortal group should have been able to hold her.

“How?”

“I am not sure. I was out.” Seeing the girl’s growing impatience, he added, “But I heard from a couple people that they had the assistance of a goddess.”

“A goddess?”

“Yes, a beautiful one that has claimed patronage to our town. I can take you to her.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t. But if you decide not to, go ahead and kill me. I won’t make it much longer if you leave me behind like this.”

She couldn’t. As an immortal she had seen so many lives pass by, so many deaths she couldn’t stop. Death was a natural part of the world and it shouldn’t have hurt if she moved this man’s time up a few days. 

But he had prayed to her. He was praying to her now. She could faintly hear him in the back of her head, asking for mercy and guidance, before he moved to the next god. This person was loyal even in the time she had abandoned his people.

And what harm could he do, really? Even if he was a minor god, she still overpowered him. 

“You may lead me to the city. In return, I will postpone your death.”

“I believe a better term would be ‘town,’ but follow me.”

They walked for days. Scarlet had made sure the mortal wouldn’t starve to death by planting fruit trees and cacti along their path in spacious intervals. As soon as the plant was out of sight behind them, she continued to let it flourish for the sake of any other starving travellers.

Whenever they wandered upon one of her bushes, she could hear her ally giving thanks to her silently through prayer. At first, it was rather awkward, but as she grew used to it she found it rather sweet.

Her companion, who called himself Wolf, explained his situation along the way. He had worked himself up the ranks in a select group of minor deities which was protected by a stronger goddess, one who had allied herself with the pack once she had heard about the possibility there was of capturing a major goddess. Wolf had the revolutionary thought that maybe kidnapping someone wasn’t the best plan and was therefore kicked out of the pack and left on his own in the now-barren land. He had spent the previous few days wandering around in search of food until he ran into Scarlet.

Neither had a lot to share, but they managed to spend their time chatting and playfully laughing at the other’s expense.

“It shouldn’t be far now. I recognize that tree.” He pointed towards an old tree that Scarlet had not planted. “A day, at most.”

His prediction turned out to be true.

As soon as the city came into view, Wolf pulled her close to the sand. “Don’t let them see us. I . . . am not welcomed back.”

“I see.” That gave her one more reason to trust him. _The enemy of my enemy is my friend_ , she thought.

“We’ll have to wait until dark.” 

Night wasn’t very far. She could wait. 

“Autumn? We’ll have to wait until dark.”

Scarlet nodded in acknowledgement. She had told the stranger that her name was Autumn. It seemed easier than explaining that she was the harvest goddess that had forgotten him.

And so they waited.

Of course, if she had realized what awaited her in the small city, she might have reconsidered how she spent that last night with her new ‘friend.’

“I’m sorry, Autumn.”

Scarlet stared in shock. How could she have been tricked so easily? She had been alive for hundreds of years longer than Wolf- sorry, _Ze’ev_. Scarlet should have learned better by now. Humans were never sincere. 

She would have broken out, ripped the place to pieces searching, but she still needed to find her grandmother. This man that she had trusted, even possibly been attracted to, was cast out of her mind.

She allowed herself to be brought to a cell and locked in. She expected them to be back shortly to begin questioning her about what she knew about the old lady. Maybe once that happened, she could drug the questioner, and get him to slip out what had happened. Maybe she could slip an ear into a pocket of the guard so she could overhear her grandmother’s location. A camera in the corner of the cell told her that she couldn’t simply take a walk around the courtyard. She couldn’t let them take out her wrongdoings on Grandma Benoit.

“Hello.”

Scarlet jumped. “Who’s there?”

“Don’t you remember me?”

Scarlet flipped through eons’ worth of memories. None seemed to immediately match the youthful, feminine voice. “Not really.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Oh yes, sure.” She lied.

“I haven’t seen you in forever, Scar!” 

Scar. Whoever the voice was, wherever it was coming from, it knew who she was.

“How do you know me?”

“I know a lot of things about you. I know who you are. I know where you came from.” The voice paused. “I know what you came for.”

“Yes, my grandmother. It’s not a secret. Now if I could just have her back I can go and leave you guys alone.”

“You’re going so soon?” The voice sounded almost disappointed. 

“Who are you?”

Finally the voice revealed itself. The wall to Scarlet’s right flickered into transparency, revealing a girl that looked around the same age that Scarlet did. “Boo!” The girl laughed.

She was stunningly beautiful. There was no denying it; thick black hair framed her face in tightly wound curls and her lips were as red and plump as ripe strawberries. Scarlet hated to call scars elegant, but that was the only word she could think of as she saw three white marks stretch across the girl’s cheek, sharply contrasting her smooth brown skin. The mark seemed to scream out ‘who could have done this? who could have disrupted such beauty’ but them simply being there seemed to enhance her image, as if they were reminding the person looking at her that this model was still human.

Of course, that’s ignoring the fact that she wasn’t.

Scarlet recognized her instantly. It had been centuries since the two had last seen each other, much less talked, but there was no denying that this was her partner in crime from oh so long ago.

“Winter?”

The girl’s eyes smiled at the recognition. “I wasn’t sure if you’d remember.”

“Of course I do!” Scarlet moved closer. If only the wall wasn’t separating them, she would be able to reunite her lips with the ones she had memorized eons ago. “What are you doing here? Where have you been? Wolf said you helped them take my grandmother. He also said a lot of other things that weren’t true so I guess that might be too.” She swallowed. “Did you?”

“I did.” 

“What? Why?”

“They wanted to hurt her. They still do. I couldn’t stop them, but this way she wouldn’t die. Scarlet, she’s here. She’s down the hall. I couldn’t find you to tell you, so I sent Ze’ev out and he did!” She looked pleased that her plan had worked.

“Wait, so Wolf was working with you? Not the . . . other ones?”

“Wolf?”

“Ze’ev.”

“Oh yes! He’s great! He’s been helping me out since I freed him from the pack leader’s control. Petite?” Winter held out her hand as though Scarlet could have reached through the walls to grab the sweet. Nothing was in Winter’s palm, which meant that she was just pretending, so Scarlet mock-grabbed a sour-apple candy and mimed eating it.

“Where have you been these last few centuries? I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“What have you been busy doing?”

“Lots of things. Like sewing. Sewing is fun. I like the measurement--they always stay the same.”

“That’s great.” Scarlet smiled. Winter was always adorable when she gushed.

“I missed you though. So did Jacin.”

“I missed you guys too.”

“After we save your grandmother, you should stay at my house!”

“When did you get a house?”

“Not long ago. I always wanted a house. Now we can have sleepovers every night!”

“That sounds great.”

“Oh!”

“What?”

“He’s almost here!” Sure enough, it was only a few moments later that Wolf slipped through the entrance. Scarlet whipped her head towards the door.

“Autumn.”

“Scarlet, actually.” She corrected.

Wolf didn’t look too surprised at that. “I’m sorry. I had to lie to get you here. Your grandmother is down the hall. We can grab her on the way out, but right now we have to go. The goddess I was telling you about wants to see you.”

Scarlet turned back towards her old girlfriend, only to find she had left. Most likely, Winter had never actually been there. Projection was more the girl’s style.

“Of course.” She picked herself up and walked towards the door, following her traveling companion. 

“Miss Winter,” Wolf bowed to the dark-skinned goddess before presenting his companion to her. “This is the girl you sent me to return.”

Scarlet grinned before walking over to Winter and hugging her, briefly pressing their lips together.

“Are you two going to help me, or are you just going to stand there, necking?”

“Grandma!” Scarlet cried, exasperated. Winter laughed. 

“Here, Grandma Benoit. I have a spare room for you.”

“Thank you, Win. I’m glad someone cares about what happens to the elderly.”

Watching the two leave, Scarlet groaned. Now it was just her and Wolf. 

“Thank you for helping me.” She told him. She really was glad for it, even if he did deceive her at some point.

“It was no trouble.” The man shifted his weight, eyes flickering around the room as though he had something to say and was too afraid to say it.

“Do you want to say something?”

He paused. “When you say your name is Scarlet, that means you’re actually _the_ Scarlet, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Now that your grandmother is safe, do you think that . . .” He gestured outwardly with his hands. 

“What?”

“Can you fix the Earth?”

Scarlet frowned, still not sure what he meant. 

“The crops aren’t growing. People are starving.”

“What? I’ve only been gone a couple days.”

“It’s been months, Autumn.”

“Oh, stars, I didn’t realize. I’m sorry. I need to fix this.” That wasn’t good. So much time had passed without her realizing it. She had a duty and she forgot it and now she had another thing to make right.

She turned to leave when Wolf’s hand wrapped around her arm. “Wait. You remember what happened last time you went out alone?”

She didn’t need reminding about her long and lonely experience looking for her grandmother.

“Are you leaving already?” Winter had re-entered the main room of her house and was staring confused at her partner.

“I was.” Scarlet scanned the faces of the two friends standing in front of her. “But I was also wondering if you two might want to come with?”


End file.
